Narsing Rao Bongurala has been confined to a wheelchair all his life. Recently, when the 42-year-old Web designer tried to access the service of an ATM centre in Meerpet, he realised to his dismay that he couldn’t. Why? Because the ATM centre did not have a ramp for wheelchair access.
He then contacted the bank and requested them to construct a ramp, but nothing was done. “I even spoke to the bank manager about the same. I told him that it would make navigating to the ATM very comfortable. But he said the bank didn’t have the funds to construct one,” he says.
After the failed attempts, he took to social media and shared his anguish. Within 30 minutes, he received a message saying help was on the way. The man to answer his distress call was 67-year-old Gangadhara Tilak Katnam, a retired Railways employee, popularly referred to as the “Doctor of Roads”, who drives around fixing potholes.
It took Gangadhara four hours to get to the spot — the delay owing to traffic and distance — and he along with a friend built a temporary ramp in less than an hour. He carries his own crowbar, a spade, broomsticks and tar mixed gravel (which the GHMC provide).
Recounting the episode, Gangadhara says, “I came to know about Narsing’s discomfort when someone tagged me on his post. I could feel his plight. Since I have all the required raw material, I decided to build one myself.”
Gangadhara feels there are hundreds of such ATMs even now which do not have proper infrastructure, and the issue needs to be addressed immediately. “We do not want more people like Narsing to suffer,” he says.
He thinks if the local community members lend a hand in building such ramps, the issue can be dealt with comfortably. “Yes, people tend to turn a blind eye to such things, but if we all unite to eradicate small issues in our own neighbourhood, we will start living in a better world sooner than you think,” he says.
